Vodacom Sponsors Mobile Health Initiative

Vodacom Tanzania has launched a mobile health clinic in partnership with Marie Stopes, an international NGO, and medical service provider Managed Mobile Health Clinic (MMHC). Vodacom has supplied the bus for the Mobile Health Clinic with all the necessary telecommunications to keep it connected to the major health centres in the areas through which it will travel. As well as being fully equipped with medical supplies and staffed with doctors, nurses and laboratory technicians and assistant medical assistants, the clinic will host a PA system to facilitate educational programmes during the day. It will also be equipped to function as a mobile cinema at night. MMHC will run all the clinic working in tandem with local authorities.

Vodacom envisages an investment of overUS$110,000 per year in this public health initiative. "It's money well spent," said Romeo Kumalo, Vodacom's Managing Director, "The clinic is a most worthwhile project for Vodacom to support. We see this as a great opportunity to improve the lives of hundreds of Tanzanians who do not have proper access to medical attention and care. In addition, we hope the clinic will serve as a means of spreading greater awareness among the less privileged and disconnected sections of our society."

Today, medical healthcare providers are increasingly adopting mobile medical and dental clinics to expand their community outreach in both rural areas and urban centres given the flexibility and efficiency of the mobile clinic in delivering health care to under-served groups. Community sponsorships such as the one provided by Vodacom Tanzania fund crucial resources like equipment, stocks, fuel supplies and staff.

"Health care is one of the greatest challenges we face as a developing nation, especially given that great distances and lack of infrastructure mean that millions of people go without the basic medical care that many of us, especially those living in the urban areas of indeed any country, take for granted," Mr Kumalo added.

"When we consider the demands of such a complex task of distributing medicines and expertise, such as refrigeration of vaccines and the long distances involved in getting them to the people that need them, it is no wonder that a mobile health clinic like this can provide a valuable service to the community," he explained.

The Mobile Medical Clinic is scheduled to cover different parts of the country and its services will be continually enhanced according to the challenges and specific needs of the different areas that the bus will service."

Posted to the site on 12th December 2005